1994 Hall of Honor

Michele Belvitch Erikson
Of the Class of 1984

A distance runner who came to Beloit from Kalamazoo, Michigan, with impressive high school athletic credentials, Michele Belvitch Erikson helped develop the College’s track and cross country programs for women while winning Midwest Conference championships in both sports. She captured the league’s 1,500-and 3,000-meter track events in record-setting times as a junior and the cross country crown as a senior, when she was the Buccaneer women’s top performer in each meet. Despite injuries in 1984, she still managed to place third and fourth in the conference 3,000 and 1,500 events. Her time of 11:04.26 in the 3,000 remains a school record. Twice captain in both sports, she won the Ruth Colman Peterson Award as the outstanding senior-woman student-athlete and was among 60 NCAA runners to participate in the ’84 International Sports Exchange in New Zealand. In 1992, competing in the prestigious New York City Marathon, Erikson was the first Wisconsin woman to finish, covering the course in 3:44 and placing 607th in the field of 5,301 women; overall she was 8,643rd of the 27,488 who completed the event. Married to alumnus John Erikson, the mother of two sons and a participant in the Chicago and Lake Geneva marathons, she has earned civic recognition as a volunteer for, and president of, the Stateline Literacy and Badger Girl Scout councils.

David L. Grady
Of the Class of 1977

It was in basketball and track that “Dave” Grady excelled as a record-breaking performer. On the court, he not only totaled 999 points but also pulled down 725 rebounds to set a Buccaneer career standard that still stands today. Twice team MVP, he was a Midwest Conference first-team forward as a senior, when he co-captained the Bucs to the league championship and their first NCAA Division III regional tournament. Before in juries cut short his participation in track, the Beloit native and Memorial High School alumnus was the College’s “one-man gang” in the 1975 indoor and outdoor seasons; scoring 187 points and setting a University of Chicago Invitational long-jump record and school marks in the indoor high and triple jumps, he won five events in the first outdoor meet and the conference triple-jump title. Still, his greatest performance came in the ’75 Beloit Relays, when he earned MVP honors by capturing the high, long, and triple jumps, finishing fourth in the 100-yard dash, and running in four other events to score 35 of Beloit’s 51 points. Grady capped the year by winning the Pat Dawson Award as the top male student athlete. A Wisconsin Power & Light Co. commercial industrial marketing representative in the past 16 years, he has been active in varied community affairs and served as chair of Crime Stoppers, Kiwanis and Beloit Board of Review.